POV – Ann:
I watched as the blinding red light finally died down, showing an empty space where just a moment ago he was there. A perfectly spherical cut had been taken with him at the centre, a part of the ground and half of the log he had been resting on were missing. The rest of the clearing had been left untouched.
The smile on my face was gone. The realization that he was truly gone, had finally set in. Gone to an unfamiliar place, with no one to help him. Without me. Come back. Come back. Come back. Come back. Please come back.
My ears were ringing, everything was blurry, my body felt numb, I was nauseous, I…When did I get into the car?
“—don’t care Tony! Get Mathews to take pictures of the crime scene! And if he can’t do it I’m gonna grab that amateur photographer that just moved into town and have him do it instead! Is. That. Understood?!” I could hear Mom whispering harshly into her phone.
“Hey Mom…Did I black out or something?” Wow, what a way to start a conversation, you go Ann!
“Ann! You finally came to! Now tell me what happened! Why do I have 4 dead kidnappers, one dead kid and a single missing teenager?!”
She didn’t know how she was supposed to explain everything that happened. Would she even believe me?
No! I can’t think like that! I have to pull myself together! If I ever want to get him back then I can’t afford to wallow in self-misery.
“Urgh! Sorry for raising my voice…I’m not mad at you. OK, maybe I'm a little angry, but I just want your version of the events. I—I talked to the kid, uhh Elizabeth, right? Yeah her. I don’t want to believe her, but I did see your boyfriend vanish in front of my eyes so I’m trying to keep an open mind ha-ha!”
Normally I’d deny it or change the topic but there were things I had to do, and I didn’t have time for Mom’s humour.
“Look, Mom, it's true all right! Whatever she said it's true! Evil cult Wizards dropped into our dimension and abducted the kids to use them as sacrifices to go back! We don’t have time for this. I need to get to Daniel. Please tell me you picked up all the stuff those bastards dropped; I’m going to need it to find him!” I needed to experiment with those Magic items.
“Woah there, sweetie you know that’s all evidence, right? I can’t just hand it over to you—”
“Mom you can’t give that stuff away. If the government finds out about this they’ll never give me a chance to find him! Also, I actually ended up using one of those magic items. Do you really think they’ll leave us alone?!”
“…” The silence meant she was considering it. She didn’t want all this attention on her town. And I know you like Dan…no matter how much you make fun of him to hide it.
“All right, look, you show me proof of this magic mumbo jumbo and I’ll consider it, all right?” With that, she took a sharp turn and started driving back into the forest. Yes!
“Take us to Gamel River. It’ll be safer there!”
<>
“Well, I’ll be damned…” Mom watched me fire the 3rd fireball straight into the water.
I concentrated on the energy within me. The Magic necklace – or an amulet I guess? – did almost all of the work for me. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t help it along.
The energy I felt within was almost definitely Mana or some other kind of spiritual power. It felt like an endless well of power. Every time I used the amulet to cast the Fireball, I found it easier to amplify the spell, packing more of my Mana into it.
The first time I used my Mana was something I don’t think I could ever forget. I remember launching the Fireball at the Noble Cultist, completely prepared to kill him. Before I’d told Dan to shoot the kidnappers, I’d always made sure to use the word ‘we’ when talking about killing them, and I meant it. It didn’t matter that he was the one who pulled the trigger. I was just as responsible as him.
I can feel guilty about killing scum after I’ve reached Daniel again.
Focusing back on the task at hand, I was tempted to yell out ‘Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!’ but that would just go over Mom’s head and make her give me a weird stare.
Dan would understand. He’d be there to laugh with me. He might even make the Fugaku face and tell me how Uchiha must not show emotions! The thought made me giggle, fortunately, Mom was too enraptured by the flames to see it.
The smile that was blooming on my face withered almost instantly. Once again I was reminded of how alone I felt without him.
“So, you get it right? I need any of the trinkets that hold Magic within them. I also need any books that they had. Those cultists should definitely have the way to make the passageway to the other world! We can even use the circle they made.”
“Well, all right. It shouldn’t be a big deal—”
“Actually, Sherrif Anderson, we’d prefer it if you didn’t hand evidence from an interdimensional crime over to a 16-year-old.”
“WHO—?” Startled, I aimed the amulet behind us and noticed Mom pull out her gun and do the same.
A brown-haired woman in a suit was standing behind us with her hand behind her back. With a placid smile on her face, she waited patiently for us to calm down.
Before I could even begin to question her, she spoke. “I’m former Targeting Officer Jones from the CIA. I’ve been instructed to offer an internship position to one Ann Anderson with the US government. The specific department name is either classified, not created yet or I simply haven't been told, this job was on quite short notice.”
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“Why ‘former’?” I couldn’t stop myself from questioning.
“I’ve been ‘promoted’ to the department that deals with events like…well events like when 4 interdimensional fugitives commit crimes on US soil, and when teenage girls manage to shoot fireballs with their minds.”
“Why didn’t show up sooner?! If it's your job then Dan shouldn’t have been the one who had to stop them!”
With a small frown on her face, she spoke. “ I’m sorry we weren’t able to arrive on time. The scanners were able to pick up on the anomaly, but triangulating the correct location, and then sending our drones to confirm it takes time. We can’t risk sending in people without at least that much.”
Drones! They were probably watching everything that happened.
Before I could talk further Mom stepped in. “ So, what do you want with my daughter.” I realized she hadn’t put away her gun. Then again, I have my own Mana channelling even now.
“Like I said earlier, a government-sponsored internship. You see we have a vested interest in figuring out a method of interdimensional travel. As one of the few people capable of harnessing the newly discovered energy, we can provide all the resources your daughter needs to help us find a solution. Seeing as we have the same goal I would like to think you would find this offer quite lucrative. Finding a missing US citizen is a noble goal after all.”
So, that’s why they need me. I thought that using magic with these tools was quite easy, but it might not be the same for everyone else.
“So, you’ll help me find Daniel? And all you want is the same thing, to reach the other world?” I wasn’t a fool, if the government was willing to help then the chances of me succeeding went up a lot. More importantly, the manpower and time saved meant that taking her offer was a no-brainer.
“Calm down kiddo, you don’t make these kinds of decisions in a hurry. Say, Officer Jones, was it? You wouldn’t happen to have any identification, would you? A Mother worries you se—”
As Mom continued speaking with Officer Jones I took the time to run through my thoughts. Going over multiple scenarios in my head I could only reach one conclusion.
I had to take the offer. This was just like the race to the moon: ‘The Space Race’ during the Cold War. The US fought Russia fiercely for something that only showed a possibility of being useful. Interdimensional travel on the other hand? This was in a whole other ballpark.
Thinking back on it, even if I was able to kill the cultists, that was something I did in the heat of the moment. Would I really be able to kill more people while experimenting with ways to reach Daniel? Because I knew I would have to, at least until I figured out how to remove the sacrificial portion of the ritual circle the cultists used to reach here. No, if I do that I won’t deserve to meet him again.
The government would have ways to get death row inmates or people who might volunteer to do it for us. Regardless, it wouldn’t be me who had to dirty my hands to achieve my goal.
Besides, I thought, looking back at the woman who had snuck up on me and Mom without either of us noticing. Standing there with an innocent expression on her face, peacefully conversing with Mom. If I don’t work with or for them, in their eyes I would be working against them.
These people aren’t interested in getting Daniel back. As long as I make my position in their ‘department’ unshakable and utterly irreplaceable, they will work to satisfy me.
Feeling the comfortable thrumming of my Mana, I realized I also had another option. If that doesn’t work all I have to do is learn enough magic to become too strong for them to do anything to me.
My resolve was found. I started walking back to my car and waved for Mom to follow after me, interrupting their conversation.
Jones raised an eyebrow at me. “So, what exactly is your decision, Miss Anderson.”
“You already know you’re my best chance at finding Daniel. Besides it would be highly impractical of me to try doing so on my own. You can send someone to find me at the Walker family home, I need to talk to Dan’s parents…and take a hot shower.”
Jones smiled brightly at that. “Very well. Personally, I believe you made the right decision. The team will be glad to have you.”
“Yeah, yeah whatever. C'mon, Mom let's go back. We have a lot to talk about.”
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POV – Jones:
I watched as our latest recruit walked back to her car sedately. All previous signs of anxiety and nervousness had vanished from her frame. Truly a remarkable young woman.
Preparing to vacate the area myself, I called into my radio, relaying the needed information to my operator.
“This is Echo 3-1, catch successful over.”
“Sierra 2-4, copy. Good work, over.”
Unable to help myself I voiced the question that had been on my mind since the brief I received before approaching the Anderson mother-daughter duo.
“How exactly did you find so much information on her on such short notice? This isn’t exactly a populated area, and she hasn’t done anything worth noticing yet, she’s just a kid. So much raw data, and you had an entire psych profile on her, even if it is incomplete. Is there some classified info that someone didn’t bother to tell me about?”
My operator chuckled. “Not at all. The simple fact is that child geniuses are always going to be people of interest. In today’s society, it's always the smart cookies that can singlehandedly bring about change in society. The talent of intelligence is too valuable to overlook. Even if we don’t act on the information, countries like China are always on the lookout for these types. To them, kidnapping a single child and relocating them to a ‘better’ country is a good thing. Even if they end up not achieving much, it’s all an investment in the end. A single success will make up for all the failures.”
That…made a lot of sense.
“Truth be told before we even noticed the dimensional anomaly, a team from another department was already en route to your position. The town of Stowe only has around 1,000 people living in it. The moment our system registered the words ‘Stowe’ and ‘Kidnap’ the department that handles the monitoring of the ‘Human Resources’ of the country had already dispatched a team to ensure it wasn’t another country causing trouble on US soil.”
Huh, but still the girl didn’t have the achievements necessary to justify this much research into her. “She’s a brave girl who fought off some kidnappers, but I didn’t see any of her so-called ‘child genius’ exploits. It was Daniel Walker that dispatched the magic aliens.”
“Hahaha, and you probably never will. She hacked into all systems that had info on them and deleted it at some point. Not only does the girl have intelligence she’s also paranoid and jaded.”
What? “Did she hack into our systems too?”
“Who knows? You’ll be working with her in the future, get acquainted with her. We already know what she wants. Her interests are tied directly to us. But that's only for a little while. She’s already tasted her first blood today and she doesn’t look discouraged. Stick close to her and update her profile at all times. Once she finds her boy, she’s an unknown element. Make sure she’s interested in being on our side even after she’s got the boy back. If not that, then Control wants us the make sure she goes back to the quiet life she seems to prefer. For now, she’s a hyper-intelligent 16-year-old, but if she keeps making progress with those Magical Artefacts or learns to do similar things without their aid, then she’s going to be a lot harder to handle.”
“The job description was severely lacking…”
“Well, I'm sure you’ll do fine. We have a new local base set up next to the residence of one Chen Lee. I hear he’s got some festivities going on. 13-year-old Samuel Baker’s death is going to hit the town hard, but businesses need to run through hell and high water, it helps that his diner is probably where many of the mourning families are going to gather. Try introducing yourself to the townsfolk and integrate. Anyway, I’ve got to go eat dinner, I’m on call if you need me, over and out.
~Teeee~
Tilting my head up to look at the full moon, I couldn’t help but sigh. “This is going to be a lot of work…”